Marinette Legion tastes humility

Southwest builds 9-0 lead in road win

MARINETTE — Green Bay Southwest came to town with three victories over state-ranked Legion baseball teams this summer.

Make that four after Tuesday’s 9-5 victory over Marinette Legion.

Southwest made a good Marinette team look bad before Post 39 showed some fight with a late-inning rally.

“Turned out to be a closer game than it could’ve been,” Marinette coach Brian Lesandrini said. “At least we battled back, made it a better game.”

While Marinette stranded five baserunners in the first three innings and 10 overall, Southwest made good use of its scoring opportunities. J.T. Bolssen started the game with a base hit, and Ian Way crushed an RBI double off the fence in left field.

In the third inning, Bolssen was hit by a pitch, advanced on Way’s single and scored on Cole Milton’s single to right.

Green Bay sent 12 batters to the plate in a seven-run fourth inning. That chased Marinette starter Matt Eldredge from the mound. Eldredge has been dominant this summer but on this night he got too many pitches up in the strike zone, and Southwest teed off.

“Matt didn’t have his best stuff, but that’s where our offense has to help out,” Lesandrini said.

Trevor Bloch made a nice running catch to rob fourth-inning leadoff batter Nate Steinbrocker, but the hard hits just kept coming. Ryan Green and Chris Kapic walked, Tyler Nystrom singled and Bolssen drove a two-run single to left. Way drove in the fifth run with a sacrifice fly, Tyler Basten followed with an RBI double and Jared Moyer walked. Nate Steinbrocker greeted reliever Rylie Nelson with a base-clearing triple deep to left.

“The last couple of games they’ve been hitting the ball really well,” Southwest coach Jared Barker said. “They’ve believed in what we’ve been telling them. Swing at good pitches — that’s the main thing. Their approach should be one spot, one zone.”

Southwest hit a lot of first pitches, and when they didn’t, they often worked the Marinette pitchers deep into the count for quality at-bats.

Way went 3 for 4 at the plate, and he was just as impressive on the mound. He pitched four shutout innings before allowing three runs. He is in the mix as the team’s No. 2 starter.

“He’s a solid kid,” Barker said. “He mixes it up real well. The biggest thing for the guys is getting ahead of the hitters. Then he can throw his curveball or slider outside.”

Mason Risner singled to right, advanced on an error and scored on Nick Daye’s sacrifice fly to put Marinette on the board in the fifth. In the sixth, Wil LaLonde was hit by a pitch and Austin Marquardt singled to chase Way from the mound. Tyler Fayta walked, Brandon Eick drew a bases-loaded walk and Daye crushed a three-run double deep to left.

Lesandrini inserted Fayta, Risner, Eick, Kyler Kruse and LaLonde in the late innings, and they responded by reaching base safely in six out of 10 plate appearances.Nelson allowed no runs in 21/3 innings in relief and Risner pitched a scoreless seventh.

“They had good approaches at the plate, had good swings,” Lesandrini said. “That’s all you can ask. We didn’t fold and give up. We’ve got too good a team to do that.”